1. Field of the Disclosure
The invention relates in general to a chair assembly, and more particularly, to a castor apparatus which is usable with a chair base, as well as a chair base with a castor apparatus. The disclosure is particularly useful in an office chair environment, however, it is not limited thereto.
2. Background Art
The use of office chairs is ubiquitous. Generally, office chairs are configured to last for years. Many office chairs are coupled to a central column that is coupled to a chair base. The chair base includes a plurality of outwardly extending arms that terminate with a castor. The castors are positioned so that they can be rotated relative to the arm so that they can change rolling direction. This is particularly useful for quickly directing the chair in the direction desired. This is achieved by having the axle of the wheels of the castor being offset from the axle defining the rotation of the castor itself relative to the arm of the chair base.
While this ability of the castor to rotate is quite helpful when translating the chair across the ground, there are problems. Due to the offset, when a load is applied to the chair, the castor is directed outwardly as the axis of rotation of the wheels is offset from the axis of rotation of the castor vis-à-vis the arm. The outward force can be quite large when the load increases, and, so much so that the castor can break off from the arm, or the arm can break itself.